Admit it, you SO wish you were me right now! That behind me is the final (I hope) copy of the book cover! In this instance, I'm glad that my cell cam sucks, now you'll just have to wait until the book comes out to see a high quality version of it. I hope it's soon, the anticipation is killing me!
If you've never tried it before, let me share something with you: it is really frickin hard to take your own photo with a cell phone, especially if you don't want your arm to show! I was looking directly into the viewfinder, although it doesn't look like it above... Wow, I hope I don't really LOOK like that!!!
Still waiting on the book to come in, hopefully tonight it will be there when I get home.
Do I have the coolest girlfriend or what? She saw this while she was out shopping, and thought of me (she knows me well), so she picked it up for me. Thanks sweetie!
I don't really like Pez (tastes like sugary chalk to me), but I love Pez dispensers! Especially HALLOWEEN Pez dispensers!!! Halloween is my favorite holiday, it blows all the other stupid holidays out of the water... If you haven't been reading along yet, go check out the Halloween Countdown on http://x-entertainment.com. You'll be glad you did!
Ok, that's all my happy news, now for the sad news. This weekend I lost my little girl ferret, after a long battle with cancer. Let me tell you a little about her.
She had a spirit that was unstoppable, no matter what the odds. Her first owner was both abusive and neglectful. He didn't feed them enough, and when I first came in contact with her she barely weighed as much as a 6-month old ferret (she was over 2 years). I was very concerned about bringing her into my house at the time; she was from an "established" group, leaving by herself to be with a ferret who had been raised alone (he was roughly a year and a half at the time). Plus, the cage I had was really built for a single ferret only, it wasn't big enough for two...
But I couldn't resist her cute little nose, and I knew it would be good for my male (Tanuki) to have some companionship, since I worked long strange hours. So, she came home with me, and the other two in her family were also adopted out to good homes, and were being raised the way a ferret should, finally.
Well, ferrets don't always go as planned... She was vaguely litter trained, so if she felt like being good she would use her box, otherwise she would go wherever she felt. I worked a long time with her on training, but she never quite "got" it. Sometimes, I thougth she was being tricky on purpose (ferrets will do that!), by going right in FRONT of her litter box. What a little devil.
I named her Kawaii, which is a Japanese word for "precious little one". It seemed to fit her so well...
Tanuki, at first, was NOT happy about the new roommate. He didn't understand why he couldn't use HIS cage anymore (and didn't want to even TRY the new cage out), nor did he understand what that wierd furry thing wandering around was. You have to understand, he was raised an only ferret. He was old enough to be set in his ways, and stubborn, and it had been so long since he had seen another ferret he wasn't sure how to act. He also didn't realize that he should fight back; she kicked his ass many times, and he just took it!
Well, after a while, things calmed down, and they became good friends. It was so nice to see them hoping around after each other, running and playing like happy little ferrets.
Then, in March (I think it was March, I can't remember), after she had been with us for over a year, she got this strange sore on her neck. I thought that maybe they had been rough-housing too much, so didn't think it was a big deal, just kept an eye on it so it didn't get infected. But it didn't get better. I took her to the vet for her annual physical (good timing!), he looked at it, ran a few tests, and told me it was cancerous. He then told me that it was too late to cut it out, and they would have to do chemotherapy on it. He also said that it was very expensive, painful, and that there was a good chance that it wouldn't help.
Well, I took it much harder than the ferrets did. They couldn't understand why I was so upset, but they did try to cheer me up. It took a while, but I finally decided that it would be best for her just to let it go, rather than put her through all that pain for no good reason.
Those who have spoken with me online know that one of our favorite things to do was for her to sit on my lap while I was working on my computer. Sometimes she'd watch, sometimes she'd try to help (which led to some interesting chats!), and sometimes she'd just take a nap. I could never do this with my male, he's too energetic and playful to sit in my lap for more than a few seconds...
Over the past few months I've had to watch as she got weaker, and normal things got harder for her to do. Her back legs started giving out, and sometimes she had to drag them around behind her. Once, she got stuck in her bed overnight, and there was a big mess to clean up the next morning. She started sleeping down at the very bottom of the cage (it was easiest for her to get to), and lost a lot of weight (for a ferret).
Saturday, sometime during the day, she went to sleep next to her bed, and didn't wake up.
I think the first day, for me, was the worst. Tanuki got out to play, and he kept looking around for her, then going back to the cage to wake her up to play. It didn't hit him right away that she wasn't there anymore.
Yesterday, and this morning, have been very rough on him. He will look around a little for her, but I think he knows what happened. He barely gets out of bed, just to eat and use the bathroom, then crawls right back in. He doesn't want to come out to play, and won't even eat a treat (he's normally such a pig!). In ferrets, like in humans, life-long friendships are made, and he's dealing with his first loss of a friend. I understand now why three is the perfect number of ferrets; if they lose one, they still have each other to fall back on during the initial times, and it will be easier to introduce another ferret later on...
Right now, I'm just not sure what to do. I think it's too soon for him (and me) to bring another one in, but I hate seeing him so depressed and lonely. I'm also concerned that he might not take well to another ferret right now, and would hate to start a life-long hatred by trying to help.
It's fair to say I also miss my friend. Checking e-mails and surfing the internet just isn't the same without her sitting there with me, and I think it will take a long time for that to feel normal again.
2 comments:
That is the COOLEST Pez dispenser I've ever seen! (Tanya rocks)
The book cover looks almost as good to my eyes as YOU do Adam... I really like that cover.
And your poor Kawaii... she sounds like she was a real little sweetheart. Tanuki and you must miss her so much. :-(
I know you probably haven't said HALF about how hard losing her is, Adam. Like a lot of us, your pets are like your kids and you couldn't love them more than you do. I'm sending you love and hugs my friend.... and wishing Peace on you.
Love to Adam and Tanuki from Beck, Eubie, Karma, Cloud & Mort....
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